Mark Mulligan

A High Tide Rises All Streaming Boats, For Now…

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

27 Apr 2016

Against the backdrop of the first quarterly drop in revenue in 13 years and a sharp decline in China revenue, Apple Music at least had some good news in the shape of continued solid growth for Apple Music,…

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: 9.99 Subscriptions At Saturation Point?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

18 Apr 2016

Streaming music had a good year in 2015, growing by 45%. Nonetheless when the IFPI announced the numbers much of the record labels’ attention focused on the role of free and especially that of YouTube…

Chart Of The Week: Facebook Video

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

10 Apr 2016

Facebook and YouTube have a lot in common. They both have in excess of a billion users, both have become part of the internet furniture and both have transitioned from disruptive challenger to incumbent. …

State Of The Streaming Nation

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

5 Apr 2016

We are proud to announce a landmark MIDiA report: State Of The Streaming Nation: A Comprehensive Assessment Of The Global Streaming Music Market . If you are in any way involved with the streaming music…

Chart Of The Week: More Than Half Of App Users Enable Push Notifications

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

4 Apr 2016

Convincing mobile app users to opt-in for push notifications is the first challenge in implementing a successful push notification strategy. Based on data collected by MIDiA from 5 leading vendors 53%…

Don't Write Pandora Off Just Yet

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

29 Mar 2016

Pandora has made the news again with founder Tim Westergren stepping up to the role of CEO, replacing Brain McAndrews. These are certainly uncertain times for Pandora, once the stand out success story…

Chart Of The Week. Playlists 1, Albums 0 – How Streaming Is Changing Music Listening

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

21 Mar 2016

The album has been under assault ever since Napster first gave consumers the ability cherry pick their favourite tracks and leave the filler behind. Apple formalised the process with the iTunes Store and…

Bad Data Is The Worm In The Apple For Streaming Music

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Mar 2016

2016 is proving to be tricky year for streaming rights. No sooner did it start to look like artists and labels were beginning to feel comfortable with streaming then along come a veritable flood of songwriter…

Music Piracy Hasn't Gone, It Has Merely Changed Its Spots

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Mar 2016

While the music industry slowly got its head around the brave new world of digital in the 2000’s piracy used to be the dominant focus of record labels and their trade associations. Now, with so much…

Here's Why Netflix And YouTube Just Parked Tanks On Each Other's Lawns

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

7 Mar 2016

Slowly but surely the traditional media industries are waking up to the importance of YouTubers but those taking note most quickly are the subscription video companies, Netflix in particular. As recently…

Quick Take: MTV Trax EE SIM Bundle

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

3 Mar 2016

There are two gaping holes in the digital music landscape: 1) a wide range of products for mass market consumers, 2) telco music bundles for pre-pay mobile customers. MusicQubed has just taken a stab at…

What Sony Music's Purchase Of Essential Music Says About The Future Of The Music Industry

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

2 Mar 2016

Independent label services company Essential Music & Marketing is no longer independent, having just been acquired by Sony Musi c and merged with Sony’s label services division Red to create a new…

Quick Take: BBC Music App

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2016

The BBC has launched a music app called, well, BBC Music . Available only in the UK, this native music app is one step on a well considered path for the BBC as it tries to carve out a role for itself in…

Chart Of The Week: Music Subscribers Vs Video Subscribers

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

29 Feb 2016

2015 was a big year for streaming music but it was a bigger deal for streaming video, generating $16 billion in revenue compared to $4.5 billion for streaming music. (Both figures are retail values). The…

The Steady Demise Of The CD Buyer
How The Music Industry Is Sleepwalking Into A Revenue Collapse

Cover image for The Steady Demise Of The CD Buyer

Report by Mark Mulligan

26 Feb 2016

The 20,000 Foot View The CD was the catalyst for the record labels’ apogee but now resembles a product strategy time bomb ticking away. With all the momentum of streaming it is tempting to discount CD…

How Free Is Defining Digital Content Strategy

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

24 Feb 2016

The internet’s ‘gift’ to media companies was free. And it’s the gift that just keeps giving. Record labels, newspapers, online publishers, TV companies, games publishers continue to grapple with…

Vevo Must Break The Mould When It Goes Premium

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2016

Vevo has long been in search of an identity. In fact you could make an argument that it has had an identity crisis since its inception as a music industry appendage/Trojan Horse superimposed on YouTube…

Quick Take: YouTube Acquires BandPage

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

12 Feb 2016

Direct to fan platform BandPage today announced that it is being acquired by YouTube. BandPage already integrates with a number of streaming services to sell merchandise, tickets and more for artists directly…

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: The Steady Decline Of The CD Buyer

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

8 Feb 2016

As much as we may be in the era of streaming, nearly half of recorded music revenue globally is still derived from physical sales, with the CD making up the vast majority of that. So, for all the understandable…

P2P In The Age Of SVOD
Rights Fragmentation Gives Piracy A Free Pass

Report by Mark Mulligan

5 Feb 2016

The 20,000 Foot View Ever since the advent of Napster media industries have been locked in a war against free. Learning from the lessons of the music business, TV companies nipped much of the P2P demand…